Impact of Thermally Stratified Plasma Region on Redistribution of Energy behind a Shock Wave Front at Hypersonic Speeds

The problem of the interaction of a shock wave with different energy structures lies in the mainstream of the scientific direction of supersonic/hypersonic flow control. This Chapter considers the effect of a thermally stratified high energy region on a shock wave with a Mach number in the range of 6-12. The redistribution of specific internal energy and of the volume density of kinetic energy behind the wave front is studied. The blurring and disappearance of shock wave fronts in density fields was obtained due to the multiple manifestation of the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability during the interaction of a thermally stratified energy source with a shock wave. The effectiveness of using a stratified source rather than a homogenous one with the same full energy value is investigated. There is agreement with the experimental evidence that is currently accessible.